Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture: practices, sustainability and implications

Wild fish and other aquatic organisms as feed in aquaculture in the Americas 193

FIGURE 50

Principal export markets for Chilean jack mackerel

fishmeal, 2004

Source: SUBPESCA (2005)

FIGURE 51

Principal export markets for frozen Chilean jack

mackerel, 2004

Source: SUBPESCA (2005)

FIGURE 52

Principal export markets for preserved Chilean

jack mackerel, 2004

Source: SUBPESCA (2005)

to 70–75 percent for frozen fish
(Wray, 2001). Clearly, under these
circumstances selling the fish for
direct human consumption may
be more profitable than reduction.
The major export markets for
Chilean jack mackerel are China,
Japan and Taiwan POC (fishmeal)
(Figure 50), Nigeria, Cuba and
Peru (frozen products) (Figure
51), and Sri Lanka, Japan
and Taiwan POC (preserved
products) (Figure 52).
The trend toward increased
direct human consumption of
traditional feed-fish species
(including the use of refined
fish oil for direct consumption) is expected
to continue in the long term as fish prices
continue to rise (Figures 46 and 49) (Normile,
2002); national governments such as Chile
(SERNAC, 2007) and Peru (Chquin, 2006)
actively encourage the direct consumption of
potential food-grade pelagic fish species; and
fish harvesting, processing and stabilization
methods improve (Bechtel, 2003; Gelman et
al., 2003).
Similarly, in the case of Peru, the growth of
the portion of the anchoveta harvest destined
for direct human consumption has increased
markedly since 2000 (Figure 53). Although
the portion destined for human consumption
is still small (27 065 tonnes or 0.32 percent
of the total anchoveta catch in 2005), it is
significantly higher in comparison to
the 0.01 percent used over the period
1991–1995, the 0.06 percent used over
the period 1996–2000 and the 0.19
percent used over the period 2001–2004
(Flores, 2006).
It is frequently stated that there is
no cultural tradition for consumption
of anchoveta in Peru (RPP, 2006; anon.,
2007), and that it is for this reason
that the bulk of the anchoveta catch
is reduced to fishmeal for export and
foreign cash earnings. However, this
is not the case, as the earliest known
civilization in the Americas, the “Caral
civilization” (a thriving metropolis as
Egypt’s great pyramids were being
built, located in the Supe Valley near the
coast of central Peru, which flourished